Valtteri Bottas completed a Friday practice sweep as reliability trouble hit Max Verstappen in Practice 2 at Imola.
The Dutchman’s Red Bull lost drive after he ran aggressively over the exit kerb of Rivazza 2, eventually coming to a stop just after the pit exit.
Though his car was recovered back to the garage, mechanics were unable to fix it in time leaving Verstappen with just five laps on the board in 14th.
That gave Mercedes the chance to gain the upper hand heading into the weekend by completing a soft tyre run and race simulation.
However, Bottas didn’t improve on the faster compound rubber, with his 1m15.551s coming on the medium tyres.
Teammate Hamilton went slightly quicker on a second flying lap but still finished 0.01s behind the Finn in second.
AlphaTauri and Ferrari continue their all-Italian battle behind, with Pierre Gasly third ahead of Carlos Sainz in fourth.
Charles Leclerc had a tougher session, finishing six-tenths behind Sainz in fifth and ending his afternoon in the tyre barrier as Rivazza 2 continued to be a trouble hotspot.
After Verstappen’s problems, Sergio Perez was left to lead Red Bull’s charge and ended FP2 sixth, eight-tenths off the pace set by Bottas.
Yuki Tsunoda recovered from his morning dramas to take seventh in the second AlphaTauri, ahead of Lando Norris in eighth as McLaren continued to have a quiet Friday.
F1’s only Italian driver, Antonio Giovinazzi, was ninth for Alfa Romeo, as Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10 for Aston Martin.
Alpine hope an upgrade will bring them into the upper midfield fight this weekend, but there’s still work to do as Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso ended only 11th and 13th.
Nicholas Latifi continued his impressive Friday in P12 for Williams, four-tenths clear of teammate George Russell in 16th.
Sebastian Vettel was 15th and Kimi Raikkonen 17th, as Ferrari’s driver line-up from just four years ago had a tricky afternoon.
Also struggling was Daniel Ricciardo, who had his best time deleted for track limits at Piratella and was only 18th as a result.
Haas once again brought up the field with Mick Schumacher matching Ricciardo and Raikkonen’s time in 19th, while Nikita Mazepin was six-tenths behind in 20th.
It very much seems to be advantage Mercedes then after a dramatic Friday at Imola. Can Red Bull strike back on Saturday? We’ll have to wait and see.
Full lap times from Practice 2 can be seen below:
